This is the basilica of the Sagrada Familia. I took my first trip to Europe in early March of 2016 and absolutely fell in love with the city of Barcelona, the architecture, the food, and the slower pace of life made Barcelona a great city to explore. Prior to my trip to Barcelona, I had never heard of the Sagrada Familia or even seen a picture of this highly beautiful and ambitious project. However, as soon as I arrived in the city, the Sagrada Familia became a focal point in the city for me, and I had to find out more.

The Sagrada Familia simply cannot be missed if one is visiting Barcelona. The size of the structure alone, the unique and intricate gothic design and even the simple color make it completely stand out in the landscape, even in a city that is already filled with such unique architecture.

The experience of visiting this structure was absolutely positive, although when I first arrived at the basilica, I found out it was an active construction zone and was a bit hesitant. I was still very curious, so I purchased a ticket for a tour for the next day. After, a two hour wait in line I finally went inside the basilica and WOW was it worth the wait. The Sagrada Familia was unbelievable! I felt incredibly small in the huge interior of the basilica. With a ceiling that seems to go on forever, beautiful stained glass that lit up the room with amazing colors, and so many intricate details in the design, it was difficult to not to be completely overwhelmed with the experience.  There are so many particular details in the tour, and the architecture design itself that it was difficult to take it all in, the entire time I was just blown away that someone would have the inspiration for such a spectacular building.

The Sagrada Familia is still under construction and has been for the last century, but the spectacular interior and the unfinished outside of this structure are still absolutely beautiful and worth the visit.  I hope to return and see the finished masterpiece!

I visited the Amazon Spheres located in Seattle, Washington in June of 2018. The Spheres is a conservatory made up of three glass domes that come together to create one amazing building.

The largest sphere is like a beautiful tree house that is enclosed in a glass, and is temperature controlled. As soon as I walked inside, I was met with a soothing waterfall, a comfortable temperature and lush greenery that was brought in from all over the world. The building made me feel like I was somewhere tropical and was a nice escape from the gloomy and cold Seattle temperature (even though it was June). There are pathways that take you through the various ecosystems and allow visitor to enjoy the plants up close, the pathways even took me to a giant birds nest that hosts meetings for Amazon employees. There is a total of four levels at the Spheres, and the higher I went up to the higher the temperature increased, and the sunshine became more plentiful. At the highest point in the Spheres, II found some lounge chairs and the atmosphere reminded me of taking in some sun in Los Angeles, which was both familiar and calming for me. I enjoyed all the features of this building including the many lounging areas and coffee shop, however the feature that most caught my eye was the vertical garden wall that is in the center of the building and spans all 4 floors, it was beautiful.This is one of the most interesting and unique buildings that I have ever been in. The Spheres were designed to serve as an employee lounge and workspace for Amazon employees, so its limited primarily to Amazon employees. I was fortunate enough to attend with my brother in law and was extremely envious because my work lounge looks nothing like this.

I am absolutely amazed by this ambitious building and loved their innovation to create a space that is both beautiful and functional. I loved going inside the Spheres and wanted to live there!

Recently, this past Christmas, I went to the NYC area and saw family there. I also explored the many sights and sounds of the bustling city.  I encountered plenty of buildings of many, but the one that will always stick out to me is the Statue of Liberty that I saw in my travels.

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Of course, whenever you see the Statue of Liberty, most people think of freedom, sacrifice, patriotism, etc. For me, after exploring the different attractions that are offered on Liberty Island, I have a new idea what it represents now, Hard work to unify the world.

To give a brief summary of the statue, it was created by the French architect Frederic Batholdi and Gustave Effiel as a gift for the U.S helping the French in their revolution for Freedom. One key aspect of this is the picture below that I took from my travels. It shows the metal framework of the statue, using many of the same concepts that Mr. Effiel used when the Effiel Tower was built in Paris

The Carl Albert High School Field House was built in May 2000. This is where I spent most of my free time during high school. The field house was home to all the sports programs, locker rooms, and work out rooms, as well as the basketball stadium. I played basketball, football, and tennis so I was in this building almost everyday after school. I have so many good memories in this building, it’s hard to count them all.

This building is designed excellently, not from just a stadium standpoint, but also how the underbelly where the work out rooms and locker rooms are located. This building manages to easily house 2 cheer rooms, two large weight rooms, over 15 locker rooms, a sports medicine office, a wrestling room, an administration office, and on top of that it is a basketball stadium. I would say one of the nicest high school basketball arenas in the state of Oklahoma. This building had a very positive impact on my life, being the building where I learned to value hard work and make life long friendships.

The Devon Tower is one of my favorite buildings in Oklahoma. I love that the building is mostly windows as you see in the picture the sunset and sunrise look beautiful on the windows. The inside of the Devon Tower is just as modern and sleek as the outside of the building. The lower level of the Devon Tower has a restaurant which as amazing food. It also has a water pond that has an infinity edge which adds to the sleek look of the lobby. The outside of the lower level has seating as well as lots of plants and flowers. The outside lower level is the perfect spot on a sunny day.

The new Norman Public Library has very modern architecture. The part of the new library that caught my attention and I fell in love with is the sculpture in front of the building. The sculpture is in a tornado shape and the book page are in the tornado. I love the idea of this sculpture since we have a lot of tornados in Oklahoma but the book pages also represent the library. I also love the modern inside of the library with many different places to study or read. I also love how many windows this library has which lets in a lot of natural sunlight during the day.

During my sophomore year, I have spent the most time at the Price College of Business Building. I have negative and positive emotions about this building. My negative emotions usually happen when I see that all the seats are taking and there is no room to set. I would have loved if they would have added more seating. That being said I do have a lot of positive emotions about the Price Building. I love how many windows the building has and how much light they bring in. I also love the classrooms in Price. I think they are optimal for learning. I can’t wait for all the classes I still have left to take in the Price Building.